A New Worship Time, Illustrated - Part 2

Last week, I shared a walk through with what Sunday morning would look like.  Details are still being worked out, so I won’t promise that is exactly how things will go, but it will be something similar.  If you missed last week’s Notes, here is a link to read it: Notes November 12

This week, I want to do something similar but instead do a walk-through of what a Committee Night could look like.  Like last week’s walk-through, this is not a guarantee that this is what things will look like, but a tool to help folks better understand what is being proposed.  As such, I have put together two mock-agendas for two ways we could meet: January 19th & February 20th.  You will notice some celebrity names in them to help with the illustration. With that, let’s put on our imagination caps and jump into Sunday morning on January 19th:

“Aaaah-AAAhhh-aaaMEN!”  With that, the sending hymn concludes and the congregation begins shuffling about, grabbing their coats, purses, and “… wait… where did I put my phone?  I had it right here… oops!  Gotta pick up the bulletin I just dropped.”  Luckily the service didn’t go long today so there is still time to grab a cup of coffee and chat before the next part of the day beings.  A few of the folks who love doing hospitality sneak out of the sanctuary to make sure everything is prepared in the Lounge for lunch.

At twelve noon, a bell is rung and lunch is officially served.  Still in the sanctuary enjoying Coffee Hour, Pastor Chris prays over the food before the Session and committee members begin to make their way into the lounge.  The meal is open to everyone, committee member or not, but most folks decide that this is their chance to go home and get started on their afternoon nap.  As people enter the lounge, the smell of warm soup crashes over you like a wave.  Only then do you see a series of soup and bread is laid out on the back table; a Northminster classic.  You think to yourself, “Which committee was responsible for bringing food again?  Last time we had our all-committee meeting, B&G arranged to bring sandwiches for everyone.  I think Community Connections brought the soup and bread this time.”
 
Tables are set up in smaller groups around the room.  Each seat has a short agenda in front of it for the joint part of the meeting.  But you don’t have to worry about that at the moment: you know that you have about 30 minutes to enjoy the food and the company of those at your table.  You get to chatting and hearing what is going on in other people’s lives.  At some point, they bring up what they are doing in the committee they are on.  You make a mental note to bring that up in your break-out meeting as a point of collaboration.
Some folks are still eating, but Pastor Chris begins the joint part of the meeting.  The Clerk gives a Session update about what they are working on and any motions they passed at their meeting on January 2nd.  The treasurer then gives a quick update on how the finances are doing before Pastor Chris gives a quick update on anything else that she’s been working on.  She concludes by saying, “Is there anything that one committee needs to check in with the other one about? No? Okaaaayyy… BREAK!”

At that, the next shuffle begins.  The Building & Grounds team chose to have a standing meeting in the Sanctuary: they found that this was an excellent way to keep the meeting short and to the point.  Pastor Chris pops in with them at the start, updates them with something that the Community Connections team is planning, and then continues on to the next group.  In 15 minutes, B&G shared all of their updates, planned the work to do, and delegated some tasks.  After that, the group prays and then disperses.

The Community Connections Committee gathers around a few tables pushed together in the lounge.  Since this committee does a lot of planning, they have broken the work downs into categories that the coordinators manage: mission (serving others), outreach (making relationships in the area), fellowship (spending quality time with each other), and education.  Since it is the beginning of the year, they are working together to put together a 2025 calendar, so events are even and spaced out.  Some work will have to be saved until the February meeting, like choosing which organizations to give benevolence funds to; but this is a passionate group, so some work is delegated to work on between now and the next meeting on February 20th.  Pastor Chris pops in toward the end of the meeting to hear some of the ideas for the 2025 calendar.  She gives some suggestions and asks about what support she or Suzanne can give to get the word out about a few of these.  At 2 p.m., Pastor Chris gives a closing prayer, and the Community Connections members head out.

The Church Operations Committee is meeting in Pastor Chris’s office for now.  They gather around the table and give updates on the 2025 Budget, Pastor’s Terms of Call, and review anything else needed for the Annual Meeting in a few weeks.  After those updates, the Worship & Music and the Tech coordinators give updates with how things are going on Sunday morning with the new worship schedule and sharing space with CCB is going.  The Church Operations Committee troubleshoots a few issues and makes a motion to send to Session about a tech issue.  The Session liaison makes a note to bring it up in the February 6th meeting.  After that, they pray and continue on with their day.

As everyone departs once their Committee is done, some think about how nice the fellowship was before the meeting.  It is always nice to share a meal and catch up with people that you don’t always talk to during coffee hour.  Others are happy that the next All-Committee meeting is on Thursday, February 20th at 7 p.m. on Zoom.  While it is nice getting to talk to people face-to-face, Zoom meetings tend to be faster (and then you aren’t at church all day!).

As I said above, this is just what things could be like.  I am more than happy to adjust this plan as we see fit.  My recommendation is to try one in-person and one Zoom All-Committee meeting before we choose one style over the other.
If you have any questions, let me know.

Blessings,
Pastor Chris